Biography

BIOGRAPHY

Alijah Vera-Tucker was born June 17, 1999, in Oakland, California. He is a guard in the NFL.

He attended Bishop O'Dowd High School. He played offensive tackle and defensive end on the football team and was named an Under Armour All-American as a senior. Vera-Tucker was rated a four-star recruit and committed to play college football at USC over offers from Washington, Oregon, Arizona, Arizona, California, UCLA and Washington State. Vera-Tucker redshirted his true freshman season. Vera-Tucker played in all 12 of the Trojans games as a reserve guard and on special teams during his redshirt freshman season. He was named first team All-Pac-12 Conference by the Associated Press. Vera-Tucker considered entering the 2020 NFL Draft, but opted to return to USC for his redshirt junior season. Following the announcement that Pac-12 would postpone the 2020 season, Vera-Tucker announced that he would opt-out of the season in order to focus on preparing for the 2021 NFL Draft. Vera-Tucker reversed his decision to opt-out after the Pac-12 announced that they would resume fall football. Alijah Vera-Tucker was drafted 14th by the New York Jets.

Vera-Tucker was named the Jets starting right guard in 2022 after the team signed left guard Laken Tomlinson. He started at left tackle in Week 4 after an injury to George Fant, then moved to right tackle in Week 5 after an injury to Max Mitchell, and started the next three games. He suffered a torn tricep in Week 7 and was placed on injured reserve on October 25, 2022.